Financial Structure and Economic DevelopmentJune 16, 2011 in Washington, DC. The advantages of market or bank-based financial systems have been intensively debated by economists for over a century. Recently developed cross-country data sets have enabled researchers to document that financial structure does change during development, with financial systems becoming more market-based as countries develop. However, those data also show that financial structures vary widely across countries, even among those at similar stages of development. In this conference, we will explore the concept of “optimal financial structure” and how this is likely to be associated with financial development in general and financial stability in particular.

Survey Design and Measurement in Development EconomicsDecember 10-11, 2009. The conference brought together a group of scholars, who discussed topics that included the reliability of recall and self-reported data, as well as methods for improvement, such as the use of diaries and Personalized Digital Assistants (PDAs).

Entrepreneurship and GrowthNovember 19-20, 2009, Academics, policymakers, and practitioners, examined the constraints to entrepreneurship, the promotion of high-growth entrepreneurship, and the impact of institutional reforms on the nature of the new incumbent firms.